Team Bio

Given my extensive research on caracaras in Florida, I am currently recognized as the expert on this species. My team includes Rich Glinski, one of the most knowledgeable and respected raptor biologists in AZ and author of The Raptors of Arizona (1998). Rich has experience trapping many raptor species. Doug Jenness, member of AZ Field Ornithologists, has been recording observations of caracaras in the state for years. We all met in Tucson, over lunch, to talk about our favorite raptor.

Joan L. Morrison

I have been passionate about birds since I was 6 years old. Always up for a challenge, I began working on caracaras in Florida, which had never been studied anywhere, for my PhD research at the University of Florida in the 1990s. Caracaras there are listed as threatened because of habitat loss and a concomitant population decline. Raptors have intrigued me since the 1980s, when I began working as a field assistant for my mentor, who then was studying a species of hawk in New Mexico. So when I got to Florida, I thought I knew about raptors and could easily study the caracaras. Boy was I wrong! Caracaras are very smart, living as both predators and scavengers. I quickly discovered that many of the capture and study methods used on other raptors don't work on caracaras. Capturing them was a challenge! But my team and I developed a successful method, and so I have continued to study these birds for over 20 years. Even after I earned my PhD and began working as a professor at Trinity College in Connecticut, I continued my research in Florida, sponsoring a PhD student and a post-doctoral student who explored other aspects of the research. Together we have published scientific papers on the caracara's breeding biology, food habits, movements, survival, and habitat associations and we have presented at many national conferences including the annual meeting of the Raptor Research Foundation. One unexpected finding was that Florida's caracaras seem to prefer nesting and foraging in human-managed landscapes such as agricultural lands and cattle ranches, rather than in native prairie grasslands. This situation makes for a positive working partnership among ranchers, scientists, and wildlife managers, who focus on reducing threats to Florida's caracara population. We work together to understand land management actions that favor caracaras and their habitats. A video describing my research in Florida can be found here.

Doug Jenness

Ever since I saw my first Crested Caracara at the Santa Cruz Flats in 2003, I've been curious about their movements and distribution in Arizona. For a long time I've been maintaining a data sheet recording their appearance throughout the state. In 2014-15 I prepared an article summarizing what's known about this species in Arizona, Crested Caracara in Arizona: Background and Recent Expansion. Jenness, D. 2015. Arizona Birds Online. http://www.azfo.org/journal/CR...I was a founding member of the Arizona Field Ornithologists in 2005 and have been active on its Board of Directors ever since.

Rich Glinski

Rich Glinski has investigated raptors in Arizona, the Southwest and the West for the last 45 years. He has written / edited three books on them and published numerous scientific and popular articles on Southwestern ecology. Doug Jenness sparked his interest in Arizona's caracara population.